NASHUA, NH – “Ebbets Field, the home of the Brooklyn Dodgers, is gone. We are fortunate that Nashua’s Holman Stadium remains standing.” So said the master of ceremonies after the unveiling of the Black Heritage Trail of New Hampshire’s monument honoring Holman Stadium’s place in African American history and the history of the Granite State.
The great American writer John Cheever was an avid Boston Red Sox fan who saw the pre-2004 Yankees’ perennial thwarting of Red Sox hopes as a kind of Greek tragedy. After the Bronx Bombers bombed out the Red Sox in the 1978 American East tie-breaker with the help of one of Bucky Dent’s rare homers, Cheever claimed that baseball is the only sport that has inspired great writing.
Some of the metaphors used by baseball writers to describe the old ballparks built before or just after WWI that were torn down and replaced by new cookie-cutter stadiums during the post-War boom were “Cathedral” and “Shrine”.
If Cheever is right and baseball is the sole sport that inspired great writing, it is because baseball requires Herculean effort. It starts with spring training held in southerly climes to avoid the cold and frost of lingering winter, and ends with the World Series in late October, while waiting for winter. Baseball’s annual life cycle spans more than three-quarters of an entire year.
Though it is a game played by a team, more than any other team sport, baseball is a game played by an individual. It is an individual who goes up to bat when his team is on offense, facing off against another individual, the pitcher, whose job is to see that he does not get on base or help score any runs if other players are on base.
Alone of all sports, it is the individual player who scores, not the ball itself.
The batter takes on the pitcher one-on-one. There may be men on base, and while the pitcher is backed by eight other men on the field—an entire team—baseball comes down to the efforts of a single individual against another single individual. And the team on defense he’s facing, as well as the fans in the stadium, be they hostile or friendly, are all part of The Show.
It’s the story of one man amongst many, performing inside a defined space – an arena – with a Greek Chorus commenting on the action, a community of fans, cranks and hecklers and assorted other noise-makers and belly-achers.
John Cheever was right: Baseball does embrace the majesty of a Greek tragedy. But it also is a story of triumphs, none so great as that of the African American pioneers who brought an end to the segregation of major league-affiliated pro baseball.
The shrine to baseball that was Ebbets Field is gone, but the shrine to the triumph of the human spirit over the tragedy that was racial segregation in America that is Holman Stadium, remains. And that shrine was honored Tuesday night when Nashua’s historic baseball park became the eighth memorial on the Black Heritage Trail of New Hampshire.
For it was at Holman Stadium in 1946 that Roy Campanella and Don Newcombe, two veterans of the Negro Leagues, took the field with the Nashua Dodgers.
It Takes a Community
Brooklyn Dodgers President and General Manager Branch Rickey, the force behind the integration of America’s Game, decided to send his two prized prospects Roy Campanella and Don Newcombe to Nashua, as he felt that they would find a supportive community there. That move made the Nashua Dodgers the first integrated Major League-affiliated pro baseball team in the 20th Century.
Campy and Newk were great successes in Nashua, leading the Dodgers farm team to the 1946 New England League championship. Newk would play another year in Nashua, and his Dodgers would repeat as NEL champs.
That first year of integrated ball, Roy Campanella was named the NEL’s Most Valuable Player. He would go on to a Hall of Fame career, crafting his own legend as one of Major League Baseball’s greatest catchers. Despite a career shortened at the beginning by racism and at the end by a tragic car wreck, Campy became the second African American enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, along with his fellow Brooklyn Dodger Jackie Robinson.
Campy, Newk, and their fellow Negro Leagues veteran Jackie would make up the nucleus of the Brooklyn Dodgers Dynasty of 1949-56. They won five National League pennants together, and one memorable World Series.
The success of Campy and Newk was a result of their individual efforts and their character. It was also a result of a minor league team managed by Walt Alston (their future manager with the Brooklyn Dodgers) that embraced them as players who were valuable assets to the Nashua Dodgers, and a community that welcomed them as both baseball heroes and human beings.
That same year, Branch Rickey sent his prime prospect Jackie Robinson to Montreal, the Dodgers’ top minor league affiliate, hoping that the first African American to play in the high minors in over half a century would have an easier time breaking in if his home team was in Canada. He felt that French Canadians lacked the anti-black bigotry that has stained centuries of American history.
Rickey believed that Nashua, with its large French Canadian community, would be a similarly welcoming community to his African American players.
‘Honorary Citizen of Nashua
There were many important people at Tuesday’s unveiling of the Black Heritage Trail of New Hampshire monument at Holman Stadium: Nashua Mayor Jim Donchess, Manchester’s own State Senator Lou D’Allesandro, State Senators Cindy Rosenwald and David Waters of Nashua, State Representative Linda Harriott-Gathright of Nashua, and Melanie Levesque, the first African American to be elected a state senator in New Hampshire.
Former Red Sox pitcher Manny Delcarmen, the “Pride of Hyde Park” who had played on the 2007 World Series Champions, was there to throw out the first ball for the Nashua Silver Knights game played after the ceremony.
Don Newcombe’s widow Karen was in Holman Stadium, having flown in from Los Angeles. Calling Mrs. Karen Newbombe “Our Honored Guest,” Mayor Donchess announced that she would be presented a key to the city after the ceremony. “She is considered an honorary citizen of Nashua,” he said.
Holman Stadium is located on Newcombe Street, yet another honor for the African American pitcher who spent two seasons with the Nashua Dodgers, winning the New England League championship in both years, 1946 and ’47.
Standing not far from home plate in the baseball shrine where her late husband made history, she bore witness that Branch Rickey’s decision to send Newk and Campy to the Gate City was the right one.
“This is such an honor to be here representing Don,” she said. “He loved this city, and he felt so safe and so loved. That’s something he didn’t have anywhere else he went.
“He stayed with a family that just asked him to come live with them and he couldn’t believe that. And somebody gave him a car. He never knew this could happen.”
As she wrapped up her remarks, Karen Newcombe’s voice quavered with emotion just a bit, as she remembered her late husband.
“So I thank Nashua, I thank all of its citizens, and I thank all of Nashua and everybody who’s here, all the councilmen and Senators and everybody. I came this far because Don loved Nashua. Thank you.”
Karen and State Rep. Linda Harriott-Gathright then unveiled the plaque.
“Real Stories”
JerriAnne Boggis, Executive Director of the Black History Trail of New Hampshire, provided her own testimony extolling the virtues of the Granite State’s Gateway City. “It gives us real pleasure to unveil this marker in Nashua,” she said, “as Nashua is one of our progressive cities and is working so much towards inclusive equity and belonging in our state. So we do thank you all.
“The Black Heritage Trail has placed eight markers across the state, and there are plans to put up 30 more as we go along, so there is going to be a visible sign of New Hampshire’s black history from the Seacoast to the White Mountains.”
She said that the markers tell real stories. “Stories that were long hidden will now be in view and honored for all of us to accept and honor this history.”
Leaving the field after throwing out the first ball, Manny Declaren told reporters he came to Nashua to honor Don Newcombe and to Newcombe’s widow, Karen. Newk was the first pitcher to win both the Cy Young Award and be named Most Valuable Player in the same season.
After the ceremony, Lou D’Allesandro shared his memories about the two baseball legends. “This is a great event recognizing two great players. Roy Campanella was a great catcher, and Don Newcombe was the last of the great power pitchers.”
During the ceremony, Senator D’Allesandro had been thanked for his role in bringing Manny Delcarmen to Nashua for the ceremony. He is a great sports fan.
Roy Campanella once said, “You have to have a lot of little boy in you to play baseball for a living.” The little boy in Senator D’Alessandro came out when he talked about Newk.
“I once saw him pitch a doubleheader. He pitched the first game and he pitched the second game. Unbelievable. They were unbelievable athletes. And to be recognized here in Nashua where they started out is great, really great.”